Time.news – The conservative party of former Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borisov is set to win the parliamentary elections in Bulgaria, at least according to the exit polls, but could have difficulty finding partners to govern.
Projections show that his Gerb party managed to get between 24.6 and 25.5% of the votes. The main rival, the reformist party
Bulgaria, national parliament election today:
Trend exit polls projects that the liberal and Turkish minority interest DPS (RE) party receives 14.8%. This is equal to DPS’ election result in 2014 which was its best result ever.#Choices #Elections2022 #BulgarianElections pic.twitter.com/vasqOzsFmN
— Europe Elects (@EuropeElects) October 2, 2022
Let’s continue the Change, led by outgoing premier Kiril Petkov, whose coalition fell in June precisely because of a no-confidence motion presented by Gerb, is second, with a consensus ranging between 18.9 and 19.9% of the votes. If these results are confirmed, but we will have to wait a few days, a difficult phase will open with complicated negotiations; and therefore a scenario destined to prolong political instability and also the risk that the Sofia government misses the target date, 2024, as the deadline for entry into the euro area.
Bulgaria is the poorest country and considered the most corrupt in the EU, to which it has belonged since 2008, while since 2004 it has been part of NATO. During the communist era, it was the closest country to the Soviet Union and still today a significant part of the population considers itself close to Russia. Energy dependence and relations with Moscow dominated the election campaign.
Also because the last Bulgarian government, led by the Europeanist Petkov, tried to put an end to this dependence, which it defined as a “tool of the Kremlin” to interfere in the political life of the Balkan country; and his government, in power between December 2021 and last June, expelled 70 Russian diplomats for alleged espionage after Russian state monopolist Gazprom stopped shipments of natural gas to the country in late April.
Borisov has been the most important politician in the Balkan country for the past 13 years, but he is a polarizing figure. A past as a boxer and bodyguard (he was the bodyguard of the last communist dictator, Todor Zhivkov), already after the three previous elections he struggled to find someone to support him. Her latest government was rocked by major popular protests, in 2020 and 2021, fueled by several corruption scandals.
For supporters, Borisov has improved the country with investments in infrastructure, roads and hospitals, and is a highly regarded politician in the European People’s Party family. For his critics of him, he has developed a patronizing and corrupt system – even close to organized crime – that would explain much of the Gerb’s electoral success; They also accuse him of not having a project and of acting in a personalistic and anarchic way. Borisov denies the allegations and argues that it is all a political plot to eliminate him from the political scene.
In his election message he argued that Bulgaria is “in chaos” and contrasted his experience with Petkov’s, accusing him of sabotaging everything that has been accomplished by his governments. And he showed himself with an image of a “man of the people”, capable of communicating with the people, sometimes in a rude and macho way, but which does not hide his humble origins. However, his rival Petkov has already rejected any alliance with the man who in his eyes embodies Bulgaria’s “corrupt past”.